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Armenia-Iran pipeline may be extended to Ukraine, EU

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  • Armenia-Iran pipeline may be extended to Ukraine, EU

    Interfax
    March 22 2004

    Armenia-Iran pipeline may be extended to Ukraine, EU

    Yerevan. (Interfax) - The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, for which a
    construction agreement should be signed in the near future, may be
    extended through Georgia to Ukraine and on to the European Union,
    Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan told Interfax.

    He said that the possibility has not been ruled out of laying a
    pipeline from Iran through Armenia and Georgia an onwards along the
    Black Sea bed to Ukraine. "After the Blue Stream project, the
    construction of long marine pipelines is no longer a fantasy," the
    minister said

    He said that the supply of gas from Iran to the Ukrainian and
    European markets is in line with these countries' plans to find
    access to alternative natural gas supplies.

    Iran, Turkmenistan and, above all, the European Union, wants this.
    Europe hopes to build a pipeline to its territory through Armenia,
    with Iranian and Turkmenistani gas. But this will involve serious and
    long negotiations, involving other countries that now receive Russian
    gas," Movsisyan said.

    In 2000 the institute VNIPITransgaz developed a feasibility study for
    the Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Ukraine-Europe gas pipeline, with an
    underwater section of 550 km from the Georgian port of Supsa to the
    Crimean city of Feodosia. The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry
    estimated the cost of the project at $5 billion, with gas supply
    volume of 60 billion cubic meters per annum, including 10 bcm for
    Ukraine.

    Armenian Finance and Economics Minister Vardan Khachatryan said
    earlier that construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline might
    begin by the end of 2003 and be completed within one to two years.

    Armenia and Iran signed an intergovernmental agreement in 1995
    establishing the route of the pipeline, which stretches 114 km,
    including 41 km in Armenia and 100 km in Iran. The agreement also
    sets the price for gas to be transported through the pipeline at $84
    per 1,000. The cost of the project is estimated at $120 million.

    The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline has been on the drawing board since
    1992. In addition to the two main participants in the project, other
    interested parties include Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, countries
    in the European Union, and China. The European Bank for
    Reconstruction and Development has said that it is ready to finance
    the project.
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